This article appears courtesy of Dog News from their September ninth issue. It’s a fun read written by Tammie Wilcox with photos by Michelle Taylor.
Saturday August 27th in Redmond, Washington the temperature was around 88 degrees and a perfect evening for a barbecue, a dunk tank and an opportunity to raise funds for one of my favorite charities Take The Lead.
A month before the event, I received an invitation via facebook to attend Take The Lead Summer Splash 2011. I accepted the invitation, but didn’t pay too much attention to the details. Then a few weeks before the event, Cindy Crawford-Gorath and Dan Nechemias were walking around with a Radio Flyer Red wagon selling t-shirts and dinner tickets at the Nisqually Kennel Club show. We bought our two tickets and put the date on the calendar.
I started to hear more buzz about the event at the Olympic Kennel Club show, which was just one week before the Redmond shows. I was told by Cindy that all auction items, t-shirt design, t-shirts and screen printing, all food for the barbecue and the wine and beer were 100% donated, so all proceeds would go to Take the Lead.
The show site is at Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington. The rings are on wonderful grass with plenty of trails for a nice dog walk. The only drawback to this show site is parking on asphalt with no access to electricity and the weather for this show is normally very warm. Friday and Saturday are days for several independent specialties including the Western Washington Terrier Club and the Mt. Rainier Working Dog Club Group Specialties. Sunday is a stand-alone all breed show put on by the Sammamish Kennel Club.
Myself and my assistant from Iceland, Thorjberg showed up to set up our grooming area on Thursday afternoon. We set our area and then went over to visit with Dan and Cindy. They were there setting up the Take The Lead pop-up tents that were to house the silent auction items. Cindy told me that there was to be a Dunking Booth at the event and they were taking volunteers to sit on the bench. Knowing that it was going to be a hot day on Saturday I had no problem in volunteering. I figured there would be a few people that would like to see me take a dive.
John and I had not contributed to the silent auction yet. When my mother-in-law passed a few years back we were given her dog collection of over 500 pieces, many of them Royal Doulton. Since there was an Irish Setter Specialty we chose a Royal Doulton Irish Setter to place on the table. I looked up the stamp on the paw and number to add supporting information for the piece’s asking bid. My research showed an approximate value of $450 or more. I spent most of Saturday at the Irish Setter specialty soliciting bids for the piece and selling t-shirts. The Royal Doulton Irish Setter earned Take the Lead $275.00 and the final bid was written down by the owner of the Best of Breed winner from Saturday’s show Andy and Luanne Middleton. The Irish Setter people were fabulous to spend the day with and I was very successful in extracting more money from their wallets for Take The Lead.
Dan Nechemias is a part of the Argyle wine company, which was a large contributor to the event with a number of bottles of wine. I also saw and had a bit of the Ponzi wine, that is located in the same area as the Argyle winery. You can’t have a Northwest barbecue without wild Coho Salmon. Dan and Wade Wickman were busy flipping burgers and Salmon along with a green salad, pasta salad, an enormous dessert bar and beverages included for $15.00 per person. There were over 130 tickets sold. I remember hearing that Dan was worried we didn’t have enough food. He didn’t need to worry. Several people even went back for seconds and there was still a bit left at the end of the night.
The silent auction closed at 6:45 with the most amount of money being spent on the I Royal Doulton Irish Setter. There were also Mariners and New York Yankee baseball tickets. I heard they are second row third baseline box seats. The lucky winner was Ray Reinhart.
The weather was perfect for the Dunk Tank. Again, the tank was donated to the cause. Ed Thomason was the first to take the plunge. He had a lineup of at least five to seven people deep. Rick Baggenstos really enjoyed sending his son Luke for several plunges. Nothing like a parent that has kept score on a few of the grey hairs the child gave you. We were all impressed with his throwing arm and accuracy. Shea Skinner kept Tiffany, his wife, drenched and caught her off guard a couple of times with quick successive dunks. We didn’t get any of the judges or the AKC representative Mary Dukes to take the plunge, but many were more than willing to buy balls to see someone else take the plunge.
Judges in attendance to support the event were, Christie Smith, Kim Meredith Cavanna, Adrian Woodfork, Gary Andersen, Betty-Anne Stenmark, Faye Strauss( MT Rainier Working Dog Club, President). It looked as if they were having a great time supporting the event and spending time with all the exhibitors.
The T-shirts were a hot item. They were designed by Michelle Taylor who also coordinated for the T-Shirt production. All 100 T-shirts were sold at $15.00 apiece or more. Some were even re-sold. A gentleman (I did not get his name) came up to me asking to buy a t-shirt. I told him that they were all sold. He looked very disappointed. I said, “He could buy the one that I was wearing, if he gave me the shirt off his back”. He handed me the $15 dollars and gave me his shirt. We made $30.00 off that one. Other people handed us a $20.00 and, said, “Keep the change”.
The event wrapped up at about 9:00 PM. Everyone pitched into clean up and place all the tables and chairs back were they belonged. I don’t think we heard one complaint about food, entertainment or about the day’s judging events. Summer Splash raised nearly $7,000.00 for Take The Lead. Lois Claus, Dan and Cindy did a marvelous job in coordinating and I know they would appreciate recognition of all the people that helped.
The volunteers were: Cindy Crawford-Gorath( Event Chair), Dan Nechemias(3rd Vice-Chairman Take the Lead), Lois Claus, Debbie and Wade Wickman, Todd Johnston, Tammy Gincel, Penny King, Tammie Wilcox, Michelle Taylor, Terri Erickson, Kelly Boyd and half the Mt Rainier Working Dog Club.
Emcee was Ed Thomason and Dunk Tank participants: Ed Thomason, Aaron Bradshaw, Tammie Wilcox, Luke Baggenstos, Tiffany Skinner, Cindy Crawford-Gorath, Kelly Boyd, Pam Sage, Kevin Chestnut, John Dewey and Savanna Skinner.
For those that don’t know what Take The Lead is this is their little blurb. Take The Lead provides direct services, support and care for people in the sport of purebred dogs who suffer the devastation of life-threatening or terminal illness.
Take The Lead was founded in 1993 as a no-for profit foundation under Section 501 © of the Internal Revenue Service code. All contributions to Take The Lead are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
If anyone would like to contribute to Take The Lead you can do so by sending a check to: P.O. Box 6353 Watertown, NY 13601
If you are in need of assistance or know someone who is in need of assistance you can contact Take The Lead through www.takethelead.org
I know that there is talk about making this an annual event. If so, sign me up. I won’t just accept the Facebook invitation, but I plan on getting involved earlier to help make this event one of the best. Thanks Cindy, Dan and Lois for including me.
